Ever wonder where that wild blood-spraying effect that’s in all the samurai and yakuza films you love came from? Right here. Continuing its season of Kurosawa restorations, AFS presents his sequel to the classic jidaigeki, Yojimbo. That film was such a smash that the director and longtime friend and collaborator Toshiro Mifune reunited for what would turn out to be their penultimate project together. Originally intended as a straightforward adaptation of Shūgorō Yamamoto’s novel Hibi Heian, the duo rebuilt it to include Mifune’s masterless samurai as the protagonist. What they crafted was a bloodier, funnier, more devious, and yet more mournful version of this tale of palace intrigue and deadly blades. Just watch out for the crimson fountain. – Richard Whittaker
Aug. 16-18
